xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged
automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising
screen use. All features of the window manager are accessible from the
keyboard: a mouse is strictly optional. xmonad is written and
extensible in Haskell. Custom layout algorithms, and other extensions,
may be written by the user in config files. Layouts are applied
dynamically, and different layouts may be used on each workspace.
Xinerama is fully supported, allowing windows to be tiled on several
screens.

Maintainer's Corner

Readme for xmonad-0.15

xmonad: A Tiling Window Manager

xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged
automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising
screen use. Window manager features are accessible from the keyboard:
a mouse is optional. xmonad is written, configured and extensible in
Haskell. Custom layout algorithms, key bindings and other extensions
may be written by the user in config files. Layouts are applied
dynamically, and different layouts may be used on each
workspace. Xinerama is fully supported, allowing windows to be tiled
on several physical screens.

Building

Building is quite straightforward, and requires a basic Haskell toolchain.
On many systems xmonad is available as a binary package in your
package system (e.g. on Debian or Gentoo). If at all possible, use this
in preference to a source build, as the dependency resolution will be
simpler.

We'll now walk through the complete list of toolchain dependencies.

GHC: the Glasgow Haskell Compiler

You first need a Haskell compiler. Your distribution's package
system will have binaries of GHC (the Glasgow Haskell Compiler),
the compiler we use, so install that first. If your operating
system's package system doesn't provide a binary version of GHC
and the cabal-install tool, you can install both using the
Haskell Platform.

It shouldn't be necessary to compile GHC from source -- every common
system has a pre-build binary version. However, if you want to
build from source, the following links will be helpful:

Running xmonad

Configuring

XMonadContrib

There are many extensions to xmonad available in the XMonadContrib
(xmc) library. Examples include an ion3-like tabbed layout, a
prompt/program launcher, and various other useful modules.
XMonadContrib is available at: